Overview
Claude Lanzmann's monumental oral history of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made. It ranked second in Sight and Sound's Greatest Documentaries poll, and 29th in the same magazine's Greatest Films of all time survey. The nine-hour film is divided into two Eras, chiefly focusing on events at the concentration camps in Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka, as well as the uprising at the Warsaw ghetto.
Shoah has had a pervasive influence on both filmmaking and wider culture, and is now regarded as a historical record of note rather than a mere documentary account. Lanzmann spent eleven years making the film, which is almost exclusively composed of testimonies from survivors, juxtaposed with contemporary footage of the Holocaust sites. The filmmaker's landmark decision to forgo the use of archive footage becomes the film's distinguishing quality, with the absence of footage posited as a symbolic representation of the annihilation attempt directed at the Jewish people. This foregrounding of survivor testimonies as the key historical record became hugely influential, inspiring the establishment of Steven Spielberg's United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which now houses all 350 hours of Lanzmann's unedited rushes. Shoah is one of the towering achievements of cinema; one which demands to seen at least once by any keen student of history, or cinema. Ranked joint 26th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll
Related

Architecton Architecton
Documentary 2024 98 mins Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.

Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.

Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.

Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.

De l’autre côté De l’autre côté
Documentary 2002 99 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Made over 20 years ago, this exploration of the lives of Mexican migrants and the cruelties of borders makes for equally urgent viewing today.

Sud Sud
Documentary 1999 71 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A study of the troubled, racist history of the American South and its legacy.

Nosferatu Nosferatu
Horror 1922 89 mins Silent Director: F.W. Murnau
This influential Dracula adaptation contains some of the most famous images of expressionist film, and remains shocking and stylish after 100 years.

Pressure Pressure
Drama 1978 121 mins Director: Horace Ové
Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted black youths in 1970s London; now available in its new restoration.

Paris, Texas Paris, Texas
Drama 1984 145 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.

Crash Crash
Drama 1996 100 mins Director: David Cronenberg
Technology and sexuality meet in head-on collision in David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard’s hugely transgressive 1973 novel, starring James Spader and Holly Hunter.

Citizen Kane Citizen Kane
Drama 1941 119 mins Director: Orson Welles
Given extraordinary freedom by Hollywood studio RKO for his debut film, boy wonder Orson Welles created this notoriously brilliant portrait of a media giant.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Drama 1975 202 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman's magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a feminist perspective on recurrent events of everyday life.

Shoah (Second Era) Shoah (Second Era)
Documentary 1985 293 mins Director: Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

Shoah (Second Era) Shoah (Second Era)
Documentary 1985 293 mins Director: Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

Shoah (Second Era) Shoah (Second Era)
Documentary 1985 293 mins Director: Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

Barking Dogs Never Bite Barking Dogs Never Bite
Comedy 2000 111 mins Director: Bong Joon-ho
A professor takes drastic action to silence a barking dog in this superb debut feature from Bong Joon-ho, the Oscar-winning director of Parasite.

Memories of Murder Memories of Murder
Detective drama 2003 131 mins Director: Bong Joon-ho
A pair of detectives clash trying to solve the brutal murder of two women, in Bong Joon-ho’s masterful blend of true crime and dark social satire.

The Saragossa Manuscript The Saragossa Manuscript
Fantasy 1965 183 mins Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
During the Napoleonic wars, a soldier discovers a strange manuscript that reveals endless stories-within-stories. Wojciech Has' opus is a major cult film of the 60s, revered by Luis Buñuel, David Lynch and Jerry Garcia.

The Noose The Noose
Drama 1958 98 mins Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Wojciech Has’ dazzling feature debut, a bleak, mordantly funny, all too human portrait of an alcoholic.

The Hourglass Sanatorium The Hourglass Sanatorium
Fantasy 1973 119 mins Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
The first screen adaptation of Bruno Schulz’s novella is an opulently strange trip through a Polish-Jewish looking-glass.

The Doll The Doll
Drama 1968 153 mins Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Widescreen adaptation of Bolesław Prus’s 1870s-set novel about a man who cannot escape his class straitjacket.